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Created: 31 August 2026 · Last edited: 29 September 2026

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In the heat of summer, Sharp presented the newest edition of their low-end smartphone series titled AQUOS wish, the wish6. It is slightly evolved from last year's wish5 and is certainly difficult to call "an upgrade" in comparison with the wish5s, which was released earlier this year in Taiwan and Singapore. Let's see.

What's upgraded? Well... It's got the same MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor underneath. And the amount of installed operating memory remains unchanged: 4 GB physical + up to 4 GB virtual. While the refreshed wish5s has 8 GB of physical + up to 8 GB of virtual memory.

Now, Sharp Japan say the wish6 doubles the onboard storage capacity of the wish5. I wouldn't necessarily agree with this statement because the wish5 had a 64 GB option and a 128 GB option but only Docomo went for the former, and every other carrier chose the latter. That is, if you bought the Y!mobile, Rakuten, or SIM-free version, you'll see no upgrade. Meanwhile, the wish5s has 256 GB of onboard storage. Now that's double beyond doubt.

The AQUOS wish6 has essentially the same display as the wish5: 1612 x 720 px, 6.6" diagonally, with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The big change here is brightness: maximum brightness has been increased to 1000 nits (when Outdoor View is activated), which one review contends is "about twice" that of the wish5 but since the max brightness level on the wish5 is undisclosed, we can't really say, can we?

Another notable change is in the phone's construction: the AQUOS wish6 is thinner — by about 0.5 mm! Got callipers, anyone? But there's a more important improvement: the frame now incorporates metal members, making the body stronger and resistant to bending — by about 20%. I wonder how many phones they broke until they measured this. Anyway, there's one more body improvement – the rear panel now has a finely textured finish intended to make the phone less slippery and less prone to showing fingerprints.

One more change is that the wish6 is now offered in three colour variants: Sora (Sky), Kinu (Silk), and Sumi (Ink), whereas the wish5 was (well, it still is) available in Misora (Sky), Nadeshiko (Dianthus), Wakaba (Young leaves), Yuki (Snow), and Sumi (Ink). I'll leave it to you to decide if that's an upgrade or a downgrade.

Two new AI features have been added to the camera on the AQUOS wish6: a Shadow Removal function, designed to remove unwanted shadows from photographs, for example of your hand and phone when taking a picture from above of the delicious meal you just cooked. And a Showcase Mode, which can wipe out reflections when shooting through glass, for example when taking a photo of that gorgeous sailing ship model in the Naval History Museum.

But there's a hardware upgrade, too.

• The main 50.1-megapixel sensor is the same as before: autofocus, aperture f/1.8, wide-angle 79° field of view, EIS (video only). One review considers the EIS too weak to provide effective video stabilisation.
• There's now a secondary 8-megapixel sensor with aperture f/2.0 (26 mm equivalent). And here it gets confusing... The Japanese versions of the wish5 do not have a secondary sensor at all, while the Taiwanese versions have a 1.9-megapixel sensor on both the wish5 and the wish5s.
• The front-facing camera stays unchanged: an 8-megapixel sensor with aperture f/2.0 (26 mm focal length equivalent), supported by electronic image stabilisation for video.

The rear camera also uses Sharp's ProPix lite image-processing engine and offers features such as night and portrait modes.

The wish6 also introduces an International Call Block function, which can block both incoming calls from overseas and outgoing calls to international numbers. Handy if you have no reason whatsoever to be calling Kazakhstan at three in the morning, it can help fend off suspicious international calls and nasty surprises on the phone bill — and could be particularly useful on phones used by children or seniors. The AI telephone assistant that was introduced with the wish5 can analyse calls and warn the user when a suspicious conversation is detected. It can also automatically transcribe messages left when the user is unable to answer a call.

The AQUOS wish6 comes with the same large 5000 mAh battery. Sharp's intelligent charging technology controls the charging process according to the device's usage situation in order to reduce the load on the battery and slow its deterioration. USB Power Delivery 3.0 fast charging is supported, with a charging time of approximately 130 minutes using Sharp's specified charger.

The phone is, as typical for the low-end series, water-resistant, dust-proof, and shock-resistant, with IPX5, IPX8 and IPX9 protection against water, IP6X protection against dust, and compliance with 18 items of the MIL-STD-810H standard. It has also been tested for resistance to concrete-floor drops. The wish6 can furthermore be washed with hand soap and wiped with alcohol-disinfectant sheets. After all, the wish series is also aimed at elderly users and children and offers special modes with large icons, easy-to-read labels, simple menus and other accessibility features.

And the Crime Alert feature is retained as well: shaking the smartphone vigorously triggers a loud warning sound and can automatically send an emergency message containing the user's location to up to three preset contacts.

The phone comes with a single mono speaker and does not support high-resolution audio, but it retains a 3.5 mm headphone jack for those who prefer to use wired headphones.

But, interestingly, the Taiwan/Singapore AQUOS wish5s excels over the wish6 in the sound department. Not only does it support Hi-Res audio (wireless and wired) but it also adds 8Way Audio, a spatial-audio technology that simulates sound coming from eight different directions to create a wider and more realistic soundstage when using headphones. In Japan, this was only just introduced with the AQUOS R11, making its presence on the humble AQUOS wish5s rather amusing — a premium audio feature on a decidedly non-premium device.

The joke is that the AQUOS wish6 is also available in Taiwan (SH-M36TW) for NT$13,990 for the 4+4 GB RAM / 128 GB ROM version and NT$14,990 for the 4+4 GB RAM / 256 GB ROM version, while the AQUOS wish5s (SH-M34TW) is selling for just NT$10,490 and it has 8+8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of ROM. I really can't imagine someone who knows a bit about specs shelling out the higher amount for the lower-spec smartphone. Really.

But to return to the rest of the specs: the full range of Global Navigation Satellite Systems is supported: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and QZSS.

The AQUOS wish6 supports the following radio communication frequency bands:

• 5G NR (sub6): n1 / n3 / n7 / n8 / n28 / n38 / n40 / n41 / n77 / n78 / n79
• 4G LTE (FDD-LTE): B1 / B2 / B3 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B12 / B17 / B18 / B19 / B28
• 4G LTE (TD-LTE): B38 / B39 / B40 / B41
• 3G W-CDMA: B1 / B5 / B8
• 2G GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz

* Bold frequencies are supported by the Japanese versions only, while underlined frequencies are supported by overseas versions only. Frequencies supported by both Japanese and overseas versions are shown in regular text.

The AQUOS wish6 measures 165 mm × 76 mm × 8.3 mm and weighs 189 grams. Did we say this is half a millimetre thinner and one millimetre shorter than the wish5?

It is released running Android 16. Up to two OS updates are guaranteed, with security updates planned for four years after release.